Do you want to take action to inspire and engage your community and build local networks to advocate for licensed child care and the importance of early childhood educators? Would you like to build or enhance your leadership skills while participating in critical dialogue and action based workshops on creating change? The Child Care Matters to Everyone conferencewill do just that.

Child care really does matter to everyone and this one-day conference invites educators, service providers, parents, students, policy makers and concerned citizens to come together and discuss its importance from a variety of perspectives. The day will draw on the strengths of the community to build relationships and identify how we can work together to create the change we need for child care.

The morning will feature local leaders from different sectors to discuss why child care matters to everyone, followed by an opportunity to engage in dialogue around our individual experiences and concerns with child care. In the afternoon participants will choose from a selection of action-based workshops.

The following workshops are confirmed:

Answering Tough Questions about Child Care

“Why should I pay for other people’s children?” “Isn’t a national child care program too expensive?” This workshop focuses on answering questions and challenging the arguments against investment in child care. We will practice effectively crafting our messages to change the minds of our opponents and build broader support for the value of child care.

Making Change with Little to No Resources

This workshop centers on the difficulties many people face when wanting to create change with little time and fewer resources. What can we do when we work long hours, have obligations, families and careers? How can we make change when we are just a few voices, with little support, few resources and limited access? We will explore a variety of tools and tricks that will help build awareness, support and a following for your cause.

Finding your voice: Using Your Personal Story to Advocate for Change

Many people are hesitant to participate in advocacy because they feel that they do not have the knowledge or experience to be an effective advocate or talk about the ‘big’ issues. In this workshop we will discuss and practice advocacy strategies that use the strength of our personal stories to advocate for change in our communities and to decision makers.

Additional workshops may be available at the time of the event. Registration for afternoon workshops will be on a first come first served basis at the time of morning registration.

Ottawa, Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie

We have the pleasure of introducing you all to our Host and Workshop lead Sarah Sahagian. Sarah Sahagian is a PhD candidate in Gender, Feminist and Women’s studies at York University, where she is currently finishing her dissertation on the mothering of inter-ethnic children. Her writing has appeared in such publications as Chasing Rainbows, a popular anthology on gender fluid parenting, as well as The Huffington Post, Bitch Media, Gender Focus, the pop culture website Comments Enabled and the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative. Sarah is also the co-editor of the Demeter Press book Mother of Invention: How Our Mothers Influenced Us as Feminist Academics and Activists.

This is a great professional development opportunity for child care workers, a great resource and leadership experience for supervisors and an empowering workshop for parents who want to learn to find their political voice. There will be a one hour workshop followed by a very fun and informal monologue presentation to help us all rip off the public speaking band-aid.

Spring Into Action for Child Care: Week of Action

May 9-17th, 2015

Do you think child care should be a key issue in this year's federal election? Help put child care front and centre by joining advocates across the country in a week of action. Here's what's happening across the country and in Toronto.

Canada-wide events

May 14 2015 /Chalk It Up for Child Care: Take to the sidewalks / outdoor play spaces with chalk (or banners and signs) to let your community know that you support the vote Child Care 2015 campaign. Make sure to take photographs, share on social

All week / The Power of ONE / If each of us has ONE conversation with ONE friend, family member or colleague about the child care and the federal election. Have a ONE-ON-ONE conversation and share your experience on social media, encouraging others to take part.